Ryangrigg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter In the early 1960s, in the age of cool, he was the “King of Cool”. He was sexy, handsome, smart, fearless, bold, and unflappable. He played heroes and anti-heroes alike: gunfighters, soldiers, cops, criminals, convicts, and even the occasional sophisticate. Being a motorcycle and car enthusiast, …
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Kickass Looks at the Map
Photo by Dominika Roseclay from Pexels By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper did a strange thing recently in driving from a distant location to his home: he looked at an actual map, noted the roads he wanted to travel, then ignored the smug blabbing of passengers’ navigation devices, and made the drive as …
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Highlights of the Pen in Hand Blog Graphics: The Michael DiMilo Gallery
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Volume III Over the course of the last two and one-half years, The Pen in Hand Blog has been lucky enough to have obtained the services of free-lance artist Michael DiMilo as a contributor. While his unique style has provided a provocative and edgy feel to the blog, DiMilo’s pieces–obviously–stand alone as works …
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Kickass and the Lost Prop
W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in celebrating the good-news story about the 1200-year-old dugout canoe being found and retrieved from Lake Mendota, to become the oldest retrieved watercraft in local history. And, of course, news of the event triggered a Lake Mendota memory of …
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Resignation Spring
Artwork by Michael DiMilo During the height of the COVID quarantine, over 9.6 million Americans lost their jobs (Pew Research Center). Restaurants, theaters, and other public venues were forced to close immediately, but every sector of the economy was eventually affected—and still is. After schools closed, many working parents had to stay home to care …
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Kickass and Dumb Rodgers
All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper endures a sore arm from a Covid booster shot, he cannot resist pointing out that in an Oct. 29 Kickass rant, he detailed his divorce from NFL football and all that goes with it, including the …
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Kickass Remembers the Hunt
Photo by Andrew Coop on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper regretfully turned down an invitation from son Larry to join him, grandsons Nick and Tony and other assorted riffraff at their woods cabin in the beautiful southern Minnesota driftless area for a weekend deer hunt. With other matters interceding, the keeper was left to …
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Kickass and Regurgitation
alleZSoyez, derivative mork of, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to challenge the keeper in his conclusion that the very natural process of regurgitation used by some birds and animals to feed their young, by bees to make honey and by cows to chew their cuds, is …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Living the High Life
Greg Hume, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Review of The White Lotus on HBO In the Buddhist religion, a white lotus is a symbol of mental purity found in the state of bodhi, or awakening. It is also linked to a state of enlightenment and strength. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, the lotus-eaters were a society of …
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Kickass and Halloween Disappointment
Peachyeung316, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, once again tries to console the keeper in his post-Halloween disappointment at not having the imagination to convert his outhouse-dated Halloween history into something equally stupid, like tipping over a bathroom. Since a brief attempt at trick-or-treating with a shot glass back …
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Kickass and Absurdity Rants
Retron, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, compares the keeper’s railing and ranting against life’s absurdities to a dog howling at the moon; and further advises him to accept his existential identity with at least as much grace as the howling dog eventually recognizing that no matter how much …
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Kickass and Watching Football
Evert F. Baumgardner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass , the doorstop dog, is trying to assist the keeper in filling the entertainment void that occurred some years ago when he—the keeper stopped watching TV football games, his thinking at the time being that late in the 4th quarter of his life there …
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